Several extremely popular water sports such as windsurfing and surfboarding involve the participant's ability to stand upon the upper surface of a buoyant board such as a surfboard or windsurf board. Because of the possibility of the participant falling from the board in such high skill activities, it has become relatively common practice to secure the participant's ankle of the rearmost foot to the rear portion of the board using a flexible tether or leash. To provide such leash attachments, a variety of attachment mechanisms which cooperate with anchor-like devices embedded upon or otherwise secured to the board have been derived. Typically, an ankle attachment such as a flexible strap utilizing hook and loop fabric attachment pads are employed to secure one end of the leash to the participant.
In the highly precise and high skill activities of surfboarding as well as windsurfing, a substantial degree of care is taken to reduce or minimize the water friction or drag forces between the surfboard and the participant upon the water. Among high skill highly competitive surfers and windsurf, substantial concern is present as to drag or friction forces caused by the surfboard leash or tether being dragged through the water. Because such leashes tend to come in fixed predetermined lengths, the leash often forms a substantially extended loose loop of flexible material which trails in the water and produces a significant drag. To exacerbate the situation further, as the surfer or windsurfer moves about on the upper surface of the board to balance and drive the board through the water, the effective length and drag of this leash changes. If the surfer moves rearward on the board, the loop of leash material gets longer. Conversely, when the surfer moves forward on the board, the length of leash material forming the dragging loop is decreased.
Thus, while the presently available devices for securing and maintaining surfboard leashes have provided a measure of safety and effectiveness, there remains a continuing need in the art for more effective, efficient and reliable systems for securing surfboard leashes.